Larian Studios head Swen Vincke has decided to set the record straight on their relationship with Wizards of the Coast in regards to Baldur’s Gate 3.
We had been reporting on the latest development on this situation in the last few days. Swen Vincke had already stated a few months ago that they can’t make more Baldur’s Gate 3 content because they had already maxed out what these characters can do under the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. They very recently reiterated that they won’t be making any DLC for Baldur’s Gate 3, not even a sequel.
In fact, Swen was quite clear on this account that Larian Studios is simply going to move on and make a new game, citing that the studio actually isn’t very successful when it comes to making DLCs or expansion content.
Now all of this has led to speculation that Larian was somehow treated wrongly by Hasbro, or their intermediary, Wizards of the Coast. Wizards is owned by Hasbro, and they are the owner of the Dungeons and Dragons trademark. Subsequently, they were the company managing the Baldur’s Gate franchise.
So, Swen has made a new tweet addressing all the speculation. He said:
“Reading the reddit threads, I would like to clear up something. WOTC is not to blame for us taking a different direction. On the contrary, they really did their best and have been a great licensor for us, letting us do our thing. This is because it’s what’s best for Larian.”
Hasbro’s moves after Larian made their announcement do seem to support Swen’s statement. They revealed plans to make new Dungeons and Dragons games in the near future. But instead of forcing Larian to keep making those games, or even insisting on a new project, Hasbro just decided to make their own video game division, and to start running new studios under that division.
As we had also explained, Hasbro kind of needs to start this division, because the company is deep in losses, and they’re looking for new initiatives to start being profitable again. That means, more than Dungeons and Dragons, we could be getting new games in their other famous franchises, like GI Joe and Transformers, and even more franchises hiding under their IP warchest, like Micro Machines, Lazer Tag, and M.A.S.K.
Larian has seen peaks and valleys alike, before enjoying their current success with Baldur’s Gate 3. Whatever they do next, there’s no doubt that the industry is going to observe them closely and follow their lead. They could be the next Blizzard or Rockstar Games, after all.
